Report: Democrats Reach 50-State Fundraising Deal Though 2024

The Democrat National Committee (DNC), chaired by Jaime Harrison, reached a joint fundraising agreement with state and local Democrat officials to boost their fundraising capabilities to compete with Republicans.

The agreement was made after multiple weeks of negotiations, according to the Associated Press. The agreement is “intended to allow the party’s wealthiest backers to contribute up to $875,000 annually to a combined fund that, under federal campaign finance rules, can be distributed to party accounts around the country.”

The reason the negotiations originally took place was for the national party to ensure there is “an extra boost for those in Republican-dominated states.”

Harrison has already touted the plan as a “50-state strategy,” meant to honor “Biden’s promise not to abandon down-ballot Democrats heading into the 2022 midterms.” AP confirmed the arrangement of the deal.

In an interview, Harrison said, “[i]t’s not just about battleground states but about all states. … We know what history says, that the party in power loses seats. But we also know you can make your own history.”

Harrison told AP the deal is backed by the Biden White House and is set to run through the next presidential election in 2024, so “the next Democratic presidential nominee won’t have to negotiate a new arrangement.”

Additionally, Harrison told the AP:

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to help Democrats raise money under the model, as they did in 2020, after the Biden campaign established a joint fundraising plan when he became the presumptive nominee.

…[u]nder the agreement, state parties will get $12,500 each month from the DNC, up from the $10,000 they received during much of President Donald Trump’s tenure. State parties will have no restrictions on the money, though most are expected to hire more staff.

Furthermore, the deal is also meant for data sharing between the national and state parties, including “other national committees, including Democrats’ Senate and House campaign committees.”

The deal allows any of the parties in the agreement to receive “access to DNC’s main voter file and then share whatever new information each gleans from individual voters during an election cycle.” The report claims an agreement like this is something Democrats have been fighting to achieve for years.

The Democrats had been able to make an agreement like this one “only after Trump’s 2016 victory showed Republicans had used their own version to lap Democrats in using data to reach voters,” according to the report.

Some Democrats told AP, “The point is to provide a basic, permanent infrastructure that allows credible candidates, like Harrison, to capitalize.”

Harrison, who lost to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in 2020, raised $60 million in one quarter in a race he ultimately ended up losing. So far in the first quarter of 2021 leading up to the midterms “[t]he DNC raised $48 million in the first three months of 2021, with the Republican National Committee not far behind at $44 million,” according to the report.